Punches in bunches: Fedor, Canseco in Japan and more

• Fedor Emelianenko finished Shinya Aoki via leglock in an exhibition grappling match at DEEP/M-1 Challenge 3rd Edition. The video of the session will air free of charge on a video-on-demand basis starting on Monday, May 4 at www.M-1Global.com and www.Mixfight.ru. (Bloody Elbow)

• In some of the most bizarre (yet totally awesome) match making to ever come out of the “Land of the Rising Sun” disgraced former baseball star José Canseco will face Korean giant Hong Man Choi in the first round of DREAM’s Super Hulk Tournament. (Big Odds Mike)

• Xavier Foupa-Pokam will step in to replace James Irvin against Drew McFedries in a middleweight showdown at UFC 98. Irvin was forced out due to a knee injury. (MMA Weekly)

• Two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu National heavyweight champion and TUF contestant Vinny Magalhaes has been cut from the UFC. (Five Ounces of Pain)

• Lightweight winner of the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter Efrain Escudero will be leaving his usual stomping grounds of Arizona and traveling to Florida to train with Nogueira brothers in preparation for his upcoming fight with Cole Miller. (Five Ounces of Pain)

The Japanese sure do love their freak shows! I want to tune in to see just how bad Jose gets beat. Remember those exibition boxing matches that Jose participated in? Didn’t go too well for him, and I imagine this will be even worse. Granted Hong Man is not very good, but he is big and has trained in MMA much longer than Jose. I call Hong Man via facial reconstruction. I thought that Vinny Magalhaes would end up being the best fighter from last season’s TUF. He seemed to have a lot of promise and was a great BJJ fighter, but after the show he has not shown anything at all. I am shocked he has not progressed further.

Good news. It looks like HDNet is going to be televising the show live. –Jared

i still think vinny has the potential to be a top lhw with his jits skills but man his stand up is super weak and he seems to have a glass jaw, that one shot that bader nailed him with seemed to make him shake like a fish out of water.

We’ll have to wait and see if he can work his way back up to the big show. –Jared